


Louder Than Words

by melissa13



Series: The Evolution of Soul Mates [2]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Reunion, Romance, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, shower scene
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-03
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-23 14:16:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/623078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melissa13/pseuds/melissa13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've never needed words to convey to each other how they felt.</p><p>A series of random one-shots about Wally and Artemis' relationship. Anything that doesn't fit chronologically into Between the Lines will go here. Ratings anywhere from General Audience to Explicit! </p><p>Ch. 3: It’s only been 22 days. Only. And yet, there are some days he thinks he might actually be going crazy without her. Set during YJ: Invasion. Spoilers through "Fix." Wally-centric with Spitfire and some Wally/Dick brotp.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Louder than Words

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This has been reposted here from my account on ff.net. Chapter 1 was written for Gwen's birthday, so happy birthday again my dear Gwen! :)

**Summary:** They've never needed words to convey to each other how they felt. Wally and Artemis' reunion post-Artemis being undercover.

**Louder Than Words**

"Home, sweet home," Wally says, wearily pushing open the front door of their apartment.

Artemis takes in the sight eagerly through her exhaustion, wondering if anything's changed in her 2 month absence. Everything looks the same, albeit, a little messier than she had left it. That was to be expected though; even if Wally was one of the fastest men alive, he never did like cleaning up after himself.

A soft growl to her left catches her attention, and she looks down to see that Nelson has padded over to them.

"Hey, boy," she says, leaning over to pet him. "Did you miss me?"

He looks up at her with big confused eyes, his black nose sniffing wildly. A whine escapes him and he shuffles backwards, away from her. She instinctively looks to Wally.

"He doesn't remember me," she says, but her voice cracks towards the end, making it seem like a question.

Wally shakes his head, resting a hand on her shoulder. It burns and she idly remembers the jolt of pain she felt when she had dislocated it earlier that night, along with the subsequent memory of Nightwing popping it back into place. But she doesn't flinch or tell Wally to remove his hand. His tough is comforting and she's missed it so much that she could almost burst.

"He's just confused, I think," he says. His fingers brush the back of her neck making her shiver. "You still have your charm on."

Her hand flies up to her neck and sure enough, the charm is there. When she'd first begun her undercover mission, it had felt like a noose, but now, even after her cover had been blown and her friends knew she was alive, she had felt naked without it and must have put it back on.

"Force of habit, I guess," she murmurs, reaching behind her to unclasp the necklace. The minute she does, Nelson scampers back over to her and tries to climb up her leg in his attempts to lick her face. She laughs, the sound completely foreign to her after these last couple months, and kneels to scratch him behind the ears. His tongue lolls out of his mouth happily, and he gives her a big, wet lick before heading back to his preferred sleeping place on the couch.

Artemis looks up to smile at Wally and something inside of her threatens to break free at the look in his eyes. It's one part relief, one part happiness, and then one part pure lust, and it reminds her of so many lonely nights when all she wanted was Wally's touch: his lips on her skin; his hands in her hair; his chest brushing up against hers. He reaches down to take her hands and pulls her back into a standing position. He doesn't let go even once she's upright next to him.

Their eyes are locked, green on grey, and she's afraid to even blink because what if this is all just a dream and she wakes up on her bunk in Black Manta's sub, reaching out for his warm body only to be met with air. But no, this is real, she thinks as his finger comes up to trace a line across her jaw. Their foreheads come to rest together and she finally allows herself to close her eyes, just savoring the sound of his breathing and his musky scent.

It's almost comical thinking about someone peeking in through their window and seeing both of them clad in their costumes, ripped and dirty from the battle earlier that evening, just standing there holding each other. When she thinks about what they've both been through though, it doesn't seem so funny. But it's over, for now at least. She can come back to the world and live again. It feels like surfacing after holding your breath underwater for too long. It had been her choice to take on this mission, and it had been the hardest thing she'd ever had to do in her life. She knows that she would make the same choice if she had to do it a second time around, but she can't deny that she's beyond relieved that the ruse is finally over.

She opens her eyes to find Wally still staring at her and she can feel her face flushing. His expression says everything that doesn't need to be spoken out loud between them; even when they were younger they'd never needed words to convey to each other how they felt. It had always been about gestures and body language. Right now his stare means,  _I missed you_ , and his hand caressing her cheek is an,  _I love you_. He straightens up and pulls her against his body and she knows the mean of this, too:  _I want you. I need you._ And even though she's tired and dirty and hungry, desire races through her veins. She needs him, too.

"You need a shower," she observes, her voice a little hoarse.

"So do you, Miss Thing," he replies quietly, smoothing his thumb across what she guesses is a smudge of dirt on her cheek.

He hasn't called her that in a long time so it makes her smile and think of better days, more reckless days when they were in their teens and convinced that they could take on the world. But they're still young, she thinks. She hasn't even turned 21 yet. They can still be reckless.

"Come on," she says, pulling him backwards with her before turning and following the familiar path to their bathroom, her hand grasping tight on to his.

Once they're in the bathroom, she shuts the door behind them to make sure Nelson doesn't intrude, before turning to Wally. It's like an electric current goes through her when their eyes meet again. The sexual tension is so thick in the air it could be cut with a knife. They haven't even kissed yet besides a hurried lip lock after her cover had been blown. It's not like they've forgotten how, though; she just knows that once they start they'll never want to stop.

He sees her intentions and busies himself with turning on the shower and getting it to the right temperature. When he turns back around she has divested herself of her Tigress costume (and isn't sure whether she wants to frame or burn the damn thing) and her underthings. She doesn't cover herself, though she has a few new scars; he's seen every part of her and she has no reason to feel insecure. His admiring gaze makes her feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. His yellow and red digs land in a heap on the tile floor next to hers and he fingers dance down her spinal cord as she enters the shower ahead of him. The glass door shuts behind them and they both groan out loud as the hot water hits their aching muscles. She turns to face Wally, marveling at the drops of water that stream down his sculpted chest. Her college friends always said she was so lucky to have a boyfriend who was a former "track star" and she is inclined to agree with them.

She reaches into the shower caddy and grabs the bar of soap there as Wally grabs her shampoo bottle that has apparently sat untouched for two months. She presses the soap bar to his chest and began rubbing soothing circles across his chest, arms, and his broad shoulders, languishing in places where there were smears of dirt or where she just wants to touch him a little longer.

She's so busy cleaning him up that she doesn't notice his hands venture behind her head until she feels his fingers lathering shampoo into her hair. She moans at the sensation and her eyes fall shut as his fingertips massage her scalp. Once he's finished, she hands off the bar of soap to him and tips her head back into the stream of water, running her hands through her blonde locks in an effort to remove the shampoo.

Wally carefully rubs the bar of soap over her body; arms, shoulders, back, and she can't help but notice his obvious skipping over of her breasts; two parts of her anatomy that she's pretty sure are his favorites. It's like he doesn't want to disturb the current non-sexual atmosphere of their shower. When the last of the suds are out of her hair, she lowers her hands, one of them finding Wally's wrist and guiding it to her chest. He looks almost nervous, which reminds her again of their younger days when he had been big on talk but had blushed as red as his hair the first time she'd taken her top off.

But his hand is slow and steady as it guides the bar of soap along the supple skin of her chest. She makes the mistake of looking up at him, only to find him gazing right back at her, his eyes burning like hot coals with desire and lust. It's a look that sets her lower body aflame with pure want and she finds that she can't look away, not even when the sound of the soap falling to the shower floor rings out through the bathroom.

Almost instantly, Wally has his arms encircled around her waist and his lips slant over hers. She melts against him, standing on her tiptoes to wrap one hand across the back of his neck, using the other to plunge through his hair. Their naked, wet bodies slide against each other and Artemis feels a shiver run through Wally's entire body even as he devours her mouth. His kiss is eager and passionate but with an edge of desperation, as if he too thought this might be a dream. She matches every movement he makes, just as she's always been able to and even starts to curl her leg around his calf, seeking some leverage.

He immediately sees her intentions and hoists her up in one fluid motion without breaking their kiss. He presses her against the shower tiles and her legs automatically wind their way around his hips, igniting delicious sensations between their lower bodies, which make both of them groan in pleasure.

Wally pries his mouth away from hers suddenly, gasping, causing Artemis to open her eyes. He's looking down at her with the most forlorn expression now and she's reminded of all the lonely nights they've had to spend apart. These last two months are the longest they've had to spend without each other since they were fifteen years old and Artemis knows that however bad it was for her, it had to have been twice as worse for him. He'd had to pretend like she was dead, and yet come home every night to their empty apartment, sleep in their empty bed, knowing all along that she was somewhere out there. She's not sure she would have been able to do the same without going crazy if the tables had been turned. She reaches over to shut off the showerhead, waiting for him to catch his breath.

He nuzzles his face into the crook of her neck, pressing open-mouthed kisses to the skin there. "Don't ever leave me again," he mumbles, and she knows he's only half-joking. "I can't function without you."

"That's not healthy," she replies breathily in his ear.

"You think I don't know that?" he laughs humorlessly. His kisses down her neck and hoists her even higher so that he can graze his lips over the peaks of her breasts. "You drive me crazy, babe."

"Are you complaining?" she asks, her breath hitching at his ministrations. She's practically shaking with wanting him so bad, but she knows him, know them; banter has always been a part of their foreplay.

"Not at all," he replies. "I just want to make sure you know what you do to me."

"I have some idea," she whispers coyly. Artemis presses her lower body against his and can't help her smirk of satisfaction when he moans her name.

A second later she's wrapped in a towel and thrown onto their bed with him standing over her, running a quick towel over his lean body. He throws it away and climbs over her, discarding her towel as well. Wally's back to being tender, cautious again, enfolding her in his arms and planting soft kisses on her cheeks, her forehead, her eyelids. She revels in his attentions, spreading her fingers along his shoulder blades.

"God, I missed you," he blurts out raggedly, halting his caresses and holding his face above hers.

"Not as much as I missed you," she tells him truthfully, cupping his face in her hands.

He swallows harshly and she can't exactly tell, but she thinks there might be tears in his eyes. She won't call him on it though. Not tonight.

"I love you," he says softly.

"Show me," is all she says in response. She doesn't need to respond in kind because he knows. And after all, with them, actions always speak louder than words.

So, he shows her; multiple times until they both finally succumb to their exhaustion. And she's never known a better feeling than when she wakes up the next morning still wrapped in his arms.


	2. Caught in the Act

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wally laughed against her skin, the vibrations making her shiver. "I think the thrill of possibly getting caught turns you on."

**Caught in the Act**

She wasn't exactly sure how she and Wally ended up in the locker room, both half naked; she'd lost her shirt and bra at some point, and he'd lost his pants. Ever since they'd had sex together for the first time, the two young heroes couldn't keep their hands off of each other. They never seemed to end up making it to either one of their rooms; instead, christening such places around the Cave as the training room, the library, even the Bioship. It was now apparently the locker room's turn.

Artemis let out a breathy moan as Wally sucked on the junction between her neck and her chest. "This is so wrong," she murmured, dragging her hands through his hair. "What if someone walks in?"

"You say that everytime," Wally laughed against her skin, the vibrations making her shiver. "I think the thrill of possibly getting caught turns you on."

She considered this, which was difficult as her mind was clouded with lust. "Maybe," she finally panted out. "Now, take my pants off."

"I love it when you get demanding," Wally groaned, his deft fingers making short work of her jeans. She helped him pull them off along with her underwear before wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling herself up so that her legs encircled his hips.

He cradled her to him, searching for the perfect place to press her up against. Artemis saw his dilemma even as she was occupied with trailing kisses down his neck.

"The showers," she said against his skin, reaching with one hand to drag his boxers down.

He kicked them off as he walked them to the shower room, picking the first available piece of wall space to pin her to. The cool tile felt wonderful against her feverish body and he wasted no time, simply checking to see if she was ready before thrusting into her. She let out a strangled gasp that quickly turned into moans of pleasure as he continued to push in and out of her.

"You feel so good, babe," he grunted, one hand grasping her thigh and the other snaking it's way up to caress her breast.

"Mm hmm," she replied, too distracted by the sensations he was creating to say anything else.

She wasn't so distracted, however, that she didn't hear the distant sound of the door to the locker room opening. She froze, making Wally groan at her suddenly rigid body.

"Babe," he whined, still pushing into her.

"Wally, shut up," she hissed, covering his mouth with her hand. He looked affronted, but stopped his thrusts.

"This is the Team's locker room," they heard Kaldur say, to their extreme mortification. His voice didn't sound close enough to cause them too much panic, but needless to say, his presence was not welcome. "We don't use it very often, as we all have our own quarters."

Wally and Artemis exchanged worried glances. "They're not going to come in here," Wally reassured her quietly. He moved ever so slighting, pulling out of her before pushing back in. She tried to give him a warning glare, but her head fell back against the tile in rapture.

"What's back there, Kaldur?" a female voice asked, causing them both to freeze again.

"The communal showers," Kaldur answered. "Would you like to see them, Tula? Garth?"

"No, that's all right," another male voice said.

Artemis and Wally breathed a sigh of relief which soon turned into a sigh of pleasure for Artemis when Wally thrust deeply inside of her. Unfortunately, her sigh was louder than she'd though, echoing around the shower room and into the locker room.

"What was that?" they heard Tula ask.

They both held their breaths, hoping they would ignore the sound, but luck did not appear to be on their side that day.

"Hello?" Kaldur called. "Is someone there?"

"It's just me, Kaldur!" Wally yelled back, his voice strained with unreleased tension. Artemis closed her eyes in humiliation.

"Wally? Are you all right, my friend?" their team leader asked. They could hear his footsteps bringing him closer to the showers.

"Yes! I'm just fine," Wally replied. His hands had a vice-like grip on her hips and he was nearly shaking with the concentrated effort not to keep thrusting into her. Artemis thought it was rather miraculous that he was still hard, but decided now wasn't the time to ponder it.

"Are you sure, you sound—"

Artemis' eyes flew open. "Kaldur, if you take one more step, I promise, you really will be sleeping with the fishes," Artemis warned him.

There was a long pause throughout.

"Ah, Artemis, I see," Kaldur stuttered, and Artemis could just picture how red his face was getting. Probably ten times as red as it had been when Raquel had kissed him on the cheek New Year's Eve. "We really must discuss proper use of the facilities—"

" _Kaldur_!" both Wally and Artemis chorused.

"Of course, of course, we were just leaving," he said hastily, and they heard his, Tula's, and Garth's footsteps recede. At the sound of the door shutting, they both let out deep breaths.

Artemis looked at Wally, expecting him to continue. Instead, she found him struggling to keep a straight face. She wanted to glare at him, but found she could barely control her own laughter. The situation was just too ridiculous. Giving up on all attempts to contain themselves, they slid down to the floor and dissolved into hysterics.


	3. These Memories in My Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s only been 22 days. Only. And yet, there are some days he thinks he might actually be going crazy without her. Set during YJ: Invasion. Spoilers through "Fix." Wally-centric with Spitfire and some Wally/Dick brotp.

**these memories in my head**

_don’t want your picture on my cell phone_   
_i want you here with me_   
_don’t want those memories in my head, no_   
_i want you here with me_

It’s only been 22 days. _Only._ And yet, there are some days he thinks he might actually be going crazy without her. Some mornings when he wants to cry out in frustration when he reaches over to her side of the bed and the only thing his hand encounters is air. Some afternoons when the thought of going to Vietnamese Lit alone makes him want to curl up into the fetal position. And some nights when he turns the TV on to drown out the deafening silence of their apartment.

It’s pathetic, really, he’s decided, and sometimes he feels like Nelson agrees with him if the pitbull’s exasperated expressions are any indication (can pitbulls even looks exasperated? He’s definitely going crazy.). It’s pathetic, though, how much he misses her. Everything feels out of whack without her. It’s like, they’ve been Wally and Artemis, Artemis and Wally for so long that he’s having a hard time functioning as just _Wally_. 

Sure, he gets through the days fine, but there are reminders of her wherever he goes. On campus, he passes by their favorite study spot on the main quad, the one where they spend a long stressful afternoon going over their notes for their Atlantean language course freshman year. On his way to class he takes the shortcut past the football field and sees the archery team practicing for their upcoming tournament. He vividly remembers having to break the news to them that Artemis wouldn’t be joining them this year. 

At lunch, he sits alone in his and Artemis’ favorite dining hall: his favorite because of the all you can eat buffet; hers because of the wide variety of Asian-style cuisine. She always said it reminded her of her mom’s cooking. After his classes he heads to the rec center. Artemis herself had volunteered to teach a self-defense class every week, and had then volunteered Wally to be her practice dummy. 

The worst part of his day is when he has to go home to their little off campus walk up. He remembers how they had scoured Palo Alto for an apartment that would fit their budget and needs and how this one, the very last on a long list of ones they’d seen, had finally struck a chord in them both. He lack-lustfully cooks himself dinner from memory rather than the numerous cookbooks that line the kitchen counter. If he looks in a few of Artemis’ favorites, he knows he’ll find little sticky notes with recipe alterations written in her neat hand. 

He avoids their bedroom if he can. It’s the site of so many shared things; intimacy, space, late night talks, early morning cuddling. For the first couple days after Artemis had left, he’d taken to sleeping on the couch until he’d figured her absence was torture enough without him adding to it. At least he has Nelson who, despite sleeping more than Wally thought was healthy for a 2-year-old dog, really was living up to his reputation as man’s best friend. Wally has taken to leaving the door to the bedroom open before he goes to sleep, and sure enough, as if sensing his master’s loneliness, he usually finds Nelson curled up on the bed by his feet.  

It isn’t just that he feels lonely, though; he feels…guilty. Guilty that Artemis is out there risking her life while he sits on his ass playing the good, little school boy. His insides burn to be out there in the field, to protect Artemis the only way he knows how, by helping the Team out no matter how useless he feels he is. He knows why he hasn’t broken out the “red and yellow” again, though; because as long as he holds off, when Artemis returns (and she will return; there is still so much they both have ahead of them) they can pick up right where they left off. Finish school, graduate with honors, get the jobs of their dreams, get married, have kids; the list is endless.

But, if he choses to pick up the uniform again, they can never go back to the lives they had before. The job and all that comes with it will get it’s hooks in them and it was been near impossible to hang up their uniforms again. The first time was hard enough; they would never be able to do it a second time. 

He thinks he could have held off is Dick hadn’t’ve called him, and his stomach drops at the sight of Dick’s caller ID on his cellphone. They’ve had almost two weeks of no contact, not since their argument at the Hall of Justice, and Wally knows he wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t important. He holds his breath as he thumbs the answer key. 

“Dick.” It’s a question within a greeting, and Wally wonders if his best friend can hear his heart pounding through the receiver. 

Dick can obviously hear the tension in his voice. “Artemis is fine, Wally,” he immediately reassures him. Wally doesn’t even have time to sigh in relief, however, before Dick retracts his words. “Well, I think she’s fine.”

“You think?” Wally repeats, trying not to jump to conclusions; instead, jumping up and packing around the living room, his free hand clenching a fistful of red hair. 

Dick doesn’t respond for a long moment, and when he does his voice sounds exhausted. “We’ve hit a snag…another snag,” he amends. He goes on to explain to Wally about M’gann frying Kaldur’s brain, only to find out about him and Artemis being undercover. Apparently, earlier in the day, Artemis had “kidnapped” M’gan, resulting in three of the Team’s lead operatives being cut off entirely from the surface. Dick literally has no idea what’s going on down there and the more he tells Wally, the faster his heart pounds in his chest. 

“I’m in way over my head here,” Dick finally admits, sounding more like the 18-year-old kid he is than Wally has ever heard before. “Everything’s gone so wrong, and it’s all my fault.”

Although what Dick says isn’t far from the truth, Wally hates to hear his friend beat himself up. “Dude…”

“No, Wally,” Dick says, his voice growing more confident. “You were right to call me out before. I haven’t been the leader I should be. I’ve lied to my teammates, kept secrets from them, and put them all in unnecessary danger. But that stops now.” He remains silent for a moment, and Wally can tell he’s gathering up the courage to say something more. “Thing is, I could really use my best pal’s help this time around. There’s no one I’d rather have watching my back.”

Wally closes his eyes, slouching down onto the sofa with one hand still clasping the phone up to his ear. He’d known it would come to this; known that the Team would need him eventually. He recalled what he’d said to Roy only a couple months ago: “Ditching the game doesn’t mean ditching my friends” and the words still rang true today. His friends were in trouble and if picking the game back up was what he had to do to help them, he would do it.

“Well, I guess the only question is, where do I report to?” Wally finally asked. 

Wally can hear Dick’s sigh of relief loud and clear through the phone. “Bludhaven, 0800 tomorrow,” he rattles off. “KF, I—” and the gratitude in his voice overwhelms Wally. “We’re going to get them back: Artemis— Kaldur, M’gann. And then we’re going to end this, once and for all.”

Wally says nothing in return, and Dick tells him he’ll see him tomorrow. They hang up and Wally takes a deep breath before heading to the closet in the bedroom. Hanging up right where he’d left it after his stint in Central City, is his Kid Flash costume. He can’t bring himself to regret this decision, though he knows it will change everything. 

Nelson ambles in suddenly, one of Artemis’ sneakers clenched between his teeth. He presents the shoe to Wally before sitting on his hunches and emitting a small whining noise. Wally kneels down in front of him, petting the top of his head with one hand and picking up the shoe with the other. 

“I’m going to go get her, boy, I promise,” Wally says, and if the dog can make exasperated faces at him, surely he can understand this. “I’m going to bring her home.”

He has to believe in what Dick said, has to believe that he can and will make a difference. If there’s even the slightest chance that he can help end this war with the Light, he has to take it. Too much is at stake for now for him to just sit on the wayside and do nothing. There are too many memories that he and Artemis still have to make, and he’ll be damned if he let’s anyone try to take that away from them. 

**********

Thanks for reading! :)


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